Press

"Matt Keating is in that same class of songwriter as Ron Sexsmith and Elliot Smith, but doesn't sound at all like either of them. His songs are elegant in structure and packed with wordplay that can amuse, dazzle, or hit way too close to home,"
-- No Depression

"Beautiful and honest songs of substance and melancholy"
-- TimeOut London

"His tunes are clear-cut, and his confessions and uncertainty ring true"
-- Jon Pareles, New York Times

"Tiltawhirl is a delicate folk-pop gem full of songs so well-crafted they seem effortless...that rare album that manages to reveal more and more depth with every spin.

-- CMJ New Music Monthly

"The pictures keating paints on TILTAWHIRL are gloriously full and memorable"

-- Bucketfull of Brains UK 9/01

"If you like great guitar-based pop.rock, dazzling wordplay, singer/songwriter introspection or self-depracating humor, Matt Keating has quietly put together a back catalogue that should have you rifling through the racks at your local CD boutique and TILTAWHIRL is a worthy addition"

-- MAGNET October 2001

After a brief disappearance, this New York singer/ songwriter returns with what may, after all, be the best record of his career. Keating has always had a knack for gorgeous but cynical love songs, and TILTAWHIRL is no different. "

-- PHILADELPHIA WEEKLY October 2001

"Matt Keating writes the kind of effortlessly eloquent pop song Elvis Costello doesn't write anymore"

-- THE LONDON TIMES July 2001

"Matt Keating has been around for more than a decade now, garnering steady acclaim for albums like 1994's Scaryarea and 1997's KILLJOY, and TILTAWHIRL displays the benefit of that maturity in songs which call to mind the classic singer-songwriters, from Dylan on down. Best of all is Jacksonville, whose elegant resignation makes it something like the Florida equivalent of Leonard Cohen's "Famous Blue Raincoat".

-- THE INDEPENDENT (UK) June 2001

"TILTAWHIRL is ambitious, eclectic and solid"

-- ACOUSTIC GUITAR WORLD -- NOVEMBER 2002

"There is almost no way to overstate the emotional pay-off (Keating) delivers with just an acoustic guitar and his artful lyrics."

-- AMPLIFIER MAGAZINE January 2003

"Succinctly observed stories of the lovelorn and broken-down." 4 stars

-- Q MAGAZEINE

"If you yearn for honest songs that make the passage from artist to audience without contrivance or modification, Matt Keating is a cult hero worth cultivating"

-- STEREO REVIEW
BIOGRAPHY

Matt Keating
QUIXOTIC (Kealon Records)
In Stores July 8 on Kealon Records

Matt Keating's three albums for Alias Records - Tell it to Yourself (1993), Scaryarea (1995) and Killjoy (1997) established a distinctive sound that split the difference between folk-rock and power pop, and favored words and music over angst and posture. While Keating's music is often labeled Americana, it is in fact inspired by a broad range of influences; traditional country, old school punk and classic songwriters. His persona has always leaned decidedly more towards the vulnerable everyman than the coolly affected and often emotionally distant rock icon.

Matt Keating has chosen an endangered format (the long-playing record-album) to perform some much-needed resuscitation on the great lost art of the album. It's exactly the kind of implausible, foolishly romantic, unabashedly retrograde quest that deserves a title like QUIXOTIC. And so it seems perfectly natural that QUIXOTIC should also be a double CD collection of 23 new songs. However, QUIXOTIC is no rock opera. Instead, like two sides of a vinyl LP, each of the 40-or-so minute discs are, essentially, two perfectly paced legs of the same destination-anywhere road trip.

QUIXOTIC finds Keating reunited with longtime studio partner Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). The album also marks new collaborations with bassist Jason Mercer (Ron Sexsmith, Ani DiFranco), drummer Jordan Richardson, and guitarist Duane Jarvis (Lucinda Williams, Frank Black).

QUIXOTIC can grab a hold of even the most challenged attention span and take it on one hell of a joyride. It's a record that never stops giving the listener new sounds to savor, new insights to relate to, new jokes to laugh at, and new things to think about.

"Matt Keating, Quixotic: Veteran popster with a double CD just crammed full of first-rate songs, some ballads, some more rock-oriented, but quality all the way."
-- Ken Barnes, USA TODAY (5/22/08)